The glowing phosphorescence of fireflies flit in front of an oversized moon.
In the pale blue light, dandelion bursts and stalks of grass guide the insects along, while stars punctuate the night sky.
For Mandy Freshour, this is the essence of an Indiana summer.
“Who doesn’t love lightning bugs? Even last night, I was sitting out on my back porch watching them in the yard. It’s such an iconic image of summer,” she said.
Leaders at the Johnson County Community Foundation agreed. Freshour’s design will become the latest mural in the Color the County program, a public art outreach the foundation has used for the past eight years to beautify local spaces.
This year’s mural will decorate the side of Tom’s Barbershop in Old Town Greenwood — a fitting locale for the design’s brilliant natural imagery.
“Mayor Mark Myers and the City of Greenwood have done an excellent job of revitalizing that downtown and making it a pedestrian-friendly area,” said Kim Kasting, executive director for the Johnson County Community Foundation. “There are a lot more new residents there, and the downtown has become much more vibrant.
“We thought it was an ideal spot this year.”
Since 2016, Color the County has brought local artists and residents together to bring color and artistry to public spaces. The Johnson County Community Foundation has organized the design and creation of 12 murals, with artwork in Franklin, Greenwood, Bargersville, Trafalgar, Edinburgh and Whiteland.
The program was created as the community foundation looked to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The idea was to connect people through a collaborative process of making murals, and transforming public spaces and the identities of neighborhoods.
“When we started the program, there wasn’t much public art happening in the community. I think it’s now blossomed quite a bit in the county,” Kasting said. “When you think of quality-of-place, art has its place, and we wanted to be involved in the initiative to bring that to our communities.”
Instead of commissioning an artist to create the mural design, organizers accepted submissions from the community.
“We want to promote the artists we have here and give them more opportunities,” Kasting said. “And I love the part where the community can come out and paint, so they have some ownership in the art.”
The mural designs have ranged from calming silhouettes of children and adults playing with bubbles, to funky Ben Franklins and kites flying in the sky, to the sun rising over a farm field. Despite their depictions, each has employed vibrant color to form undeniably noticeable wallscapes.
Freshour’s creation will be the 13th installation to go in, including the third in Greenwood. Community foundation organizers were approached by Jeff Davis, owner of Tom’s Barbershop, who offered the blank wall on the side of the shop to use for a mural.
“We’ve always been looking for ideal locations in Greenwood, and (Jeff) reached out to us a year ago saying he had a location that he’d love for us to paint,” Kasting said. “We’d already chosen our location for our 2023, but we put him on our radar for 2024. We went and visited, and it was great.”
Freshour is a freelance graphic designer and homeschool mom who has lived in Johnson County for over 20 years. Art has been a central part of her life, but she had never created a mural before.
Still, driving around the county, she was drawn toward the colorful murals that had gone up through the Color the County program.
“I’ve seen all of these amazing murals pop up all over the county. They’re so much fun to drive by, and I thought it would be fun if one of those were my design — wouldn’t that be fun to do?” she said.
When a call went out in April for designs for this year’s mural, Freshour decided to give it a try. Her design centered on an idyllic summer night and fireflies, the Indiana state insect.
Freshour had submitted a similar design for Color the County a few years ago, but it hadn’t been picked. She updated the color and imagery, then resubmitted it.
“What says summer more than Indiana’s state insect, the firefly? A sure sign that summer and warm weather are here,” Freshour described her in submission.
As the Johnson County Community Foundation collected submissions from artists throughout the area, the Color the County committee assessed which would fit best.
Freshour’s stood out.
”We looked at all the designs we had, and we take a lot of things into consideration,” Kasting said. “If you’re over there at Tom’s Barbershop, there’s a little creek there and a park. So it fits that area — you can imagine looking out and seeing fireflies and the moon. We thought it would be appealing and be drawn to.”
The announcement was a shock to Freshour — a welcome shock, but a shock nonetheless.
“It’s still kind of hard to wrap my brain around,” she said. “My daughter was really excited; she’s also going to be an art student, and she offered to help me. So I’m excited to share that and do that together on a piece that will be there for a long time.”
IF YOU GO
Community Painting Day
What: A community event encouraging the public to come together and create a mural designed by artist Mandy Freshour. The mural is part of the Color the County program, through the Johnson County Community Foundation.
When: 9 a.m. to noon July 20
Where: Tom’s Barbershop, 338 Market Plaza, Greenwood
Who can take part: The event is open to all; no artistic ability is necessary.
Participants will receive supplies and paint
Information: jccf.org/mural-program
